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Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Nigerian woman who paid man £1,000 to pose as her baby's father to gain British citizenship jailed

Faust Abolore plotted to gain British citizenship by putting 44-year-old
Anthony Ezekpo’s name on her son’s birth certificate and a subsequent
passport application.
However, she was caught when photographs of the child’s real father,
Nigerian national Peter Gentry, were posted on Facebook, showing him
cradling the boy at a naming ceremony.

Inner London crown court heard that Abolore got a job as a care home
assistant in 2011 with a bogus Portuguese passport, and had twice been
turned down for leave to remain in 2013 and 2014.

"These sort of offences undermine confidence in the system of
immigration control. You, Abolore, were seeking to cheat your way into
being allowed to remain in this country. Ezekpo, you agreed to help her
in making that possible."

Abolore, who was living with Mr Gentry in Erith, gave birth at Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich on August 6, 2014. Prosecutor Alex Mills
said:

"Ms Abolore entered an agreement with Mr Ezekpo whereby he would pretend
to be the father of that child."
The pair went to a register office and signed the birth certificate
which said Ezekpo was the boy’s father and claimed they lived together
in Erith.
"There had been a payment of £1,000 which coincided with the visit to
the register office," said Mr Mills.

In November 2014, Abolore applied for leave to remain in the UK, based
on the birth of the child. However, the Facebook photos of Mr Gentry
undermined their story, and it emerged that Ezekpo lived in the North
East. Mr Mills said Abolore’s use of a false passport to get the care
assistant job emerged during the police investigation, when detectives
found a passport bearing Abolore’s picture but a different name.

The court heard that Abolore still insists that Ezekpo is the child’s father.
Abolore and Ezekpo, of Winlaton, near Gateshead, were found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to breach immigration law.